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This Week’s Comics

A nice, light week this time around. Which may not sounds like a goodthing, but it will give me time to read through the enormous batch of Cobra Civil War comics I picked up this weekend (for 50 cents each!). Here’s this week’s noteworthy books.

FEAR ITSELF #7 POINT TWO – Apparently the Point One initiative is working well enough to extend to a Point Two issue. Well played, Marvel. Well played.

PIGS #3 – The intrigue in this title has sunk it’s hooks into me. Get on board now, so you can complain about all the changes in the inevitable movie.

POINT ONE #1

UNCANNY X-FORCE #17

WOLVERINE #18

I’ve made a few glaring omissions recently. Let’s call this the MeaCulpa section. Shame Itself #1 is out, and worth adding to the pull list because of Michael Kupperman’s presence. (I also just picked uphis new Autobiography of Mark Twain, expect a review soon.) In what I anticipate to be the only DC title I’ll be picking up in theforeseeable future, I managed to snag a copy of Shade #1 for a buck.

No, I’m not softening my DC boycott, but here’s my reasoning:Superman was the first superhero in the DCnU, and he burst onto the scene five years ago. The JLA was the first super-team. This meansno JSA in World War II, which means no Ted Knight Starman, which definitely precludes Jack Knight. For this series to work, thoseStarman adventures must have happened, therefore the new Shade series is not in the New 52, but instead takes place in what I can only still refer to as the post-Crisis DCU. That being the case, no boycott onThe Shade.

So, overwrought hand-wringing justifications aside, how was it? Sofar it’s been a mixed bag. I’ve been nervous that the “Cry For Justice” voice James Robinson has been using is his modern tone, but Ishouldn’t have been worried. Robinson slips back into “Starman” mode very easily, and even does a little gentle mocking of the flowery andpoetic language. Once he rediscovers where his singular PLACEMENT of emphasis is, it’ll be a pleasant return to form.

The Shade promises to finally reveal his origin story, though Ithought that had all been covered in the 1997 mini-series (which also gave us another top-quality artist for each period), but perhaps not.Disappointingly, the impetus behind the revelation is merely Mikaal Tomas saying “Oh, you were going to reveal your origin, weren’t you?”. A little more subtlety would have been appreciated. Deathstroke’s new Bisleyesque costume is the only hint that we may be in the DCnU (EVEN THOUGH WE DEFINITELY AREN’T), and the contrast between the twovillains is a striking one, as Shade definitely seems better-suitedfor Golden Age hijinks than Dark Age assassins and madmen.

If this seems like I’m damning the title with faint praise maybe I am,but I will say this: James Robinson definitely still has the spark in him that made Starman one of the best titles DC put out in the 90’s,and if it takes him a couple issues to fully find his legs, I’ll take it. It’s an ever-so pleasant return to old haunts, and a welcome one.

That’s it for this week. My running pull list has been updated, and Ileave now to dive into that civil war. What are YOU looking at this week?